Iraq - Possible UK pullout by 2008

Norman Kember in a new video broadcast Tuesday

In a report published in the Daily Telegraph in the UK a withdrawal plan for British troops is be implemented in Iraq by 2008. This is in contrast to a recent commitment by the British government to send more troops to Afghanistan. The withdrawal would occur only if the situation in Iraq remained stable and the violence diminished significantly. The first movements could come within weeks, said Lt Gen Nick Houghton. Although Gen Houghton said the withdrawal was prompted by confidence that Iraq's 225,000 soldiers and police officers could soon maintain order without assistance, the news was seen by hard-line Shia and Sunni groups as a victory for their resistance to the "occupiers", the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday. Khalil Ibrahim, a leading member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said it was good that foreign troops were leaving voluntarily before they were "forced to". And a Baghdad spokesman of Moqtada al-Sadr, the militant Shi’ite cleric, said their departure was "our aim and our goal".

But Lt Gen Nick Houghton’s optimism was not shared by all. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad told the LA Times that Pandora’s box had already been opened in Iraq. He said the "potential is there" for sectarian violence to become a full-blown civil war. "We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way forward?" Khalilzad said. "The way forward, in my view, is an effort to build bridges across [Iraq's] communities." His comments were in direct contrast to other top officials within the US military. On Sunday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a televised interview that things in Iraq were "going very, very well, from everything you look at." Many observers may well be of the opinion that his view is overly optimistic as the violence and attacks continue almost daily.
Uncertainty also remains for the safety of those held by insurgent groups in Iraq. But for one group of hostages there was a new video of kidnapped peace activist Norman Kember was shown on Al-Jazeera today, bringing with it fresh hopes that he might be released. David Cockburn, a spokesman for the Christian Peacemakers Team, said he was “hopeful” of a positive outcome, adding that there was a “Huge amount of work [being done] behind the scenes”. But there were concerns for the safety for one of the kidnapped activists as the video failed to show the American citizen, Tom Fox [CNN] . The video comes two days after a vigil calling for their release by supporters in London’s Trafalgar Square. The activists have been held by the Swords of Righteousness group since November 2005. Bomb attacks targeted at least three cities in Iraq on Monday killing at least 10 according to CNN. In Baghdad a US military convoy was targeted and a top Iraqi general was killed in a separate ambush. Maj. Gen. Mubdar Hatim was the commander of the Iraqi army's 6th Division, and was shot by insurgents in the Khadamiya district of Baghdad. Several civilians were said to have been injured. And in Baquba and Hilla, car bombs exploded injuring 53 people and killing at least 6. A U.S. soldier was killed Sunday in Iraq's Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said. According to the military, the soldier "died due to enemy action" in the province. Since the start of the war in 2003, 2,302 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.